


Last Wolves Standing

by theroguesgambit



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Jealous!Stiles, M/M, Misunderstandings, Pack Feels, scott & derek friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-21
Updated: 2015-05-21
Packaged: 2018-03-31 12:43:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3978511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theroguesgambit/pseuds/theroguesgambit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Scott and Derek have been getting close lately, and that's fine. Stiles is happy for them.</p><p>Happy for them and not even a little bit jealous.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Last Wolves Standing

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr ficlet set at some hypothetical point post 3B and pre-Liam being bitten.

It starts off as little things, but even the littlest things capture Stiles’ attention because they’re such a turnaround from the way things were before. There’s Scott’s hand resting on Derek’s shoulder, fine, whatever. But then there’s that same hand moving to squeeze Derek’s nape, massaging the skin at the base of his hairline. There’s Scott casually leaning into Derek’s space when they’re going over a plan or just sitting on the couch next to each other, bumping their elbows together and neither of them moving away.

When he walks into the loft to find Scott standing behind a seated Derek, one arm draped over his chest and a chin resting on his shoulder, Stiles finally snaps.

“Ok,  _seriously._  What is going on?”

Scott looks up, casual as anything, chin still propped on Derek’s shoulder, fingers splayed out across his chest, and has the gall to look confused by Stiles’ outburst.

“Um… we’re going over the plans to rebuild the Hale house?” They’d bought the property back from the town with Derek’s not-so-secret boatloads of cash. …Well, Derek had bought it back, but Scott had been suspiciously involved in the whole process. Or maybe not  _suspiciously_ , considering.

Considering how things are now.

Stiles tries to fight a grimace, tries not to stare too hard at the draped arm. It must work because Scott’s looking back down at the plans, totally oblivious.

“Derek’s insisting on including a dungeon—”

“Not a dungeon,” Derek cuts in, eyes rolling. He seems totally relaxed under Scott’s hands. Derek  _never_  looks relaxed, and the sight just adds to Stiles’ frustration. “An isolation area for new betas. Every pack needs one.”

“Yeah, I remember when Stiles tried to chain me up on my first moon. I didn’t exactly go quietly.”

Derek snorts, head shifting a little to the side, knocking his temple against Scott’s ear.

“Yeah, well if you’d just listened to me back then—”

“If we’d listened to  _each other,_ ” Scott cuts in, using his diplomatic alpha tone to the fullest, “a lot of things would’ve gone more smoothly.”

He aims a grin up toward Stiles, but the expression falls away fast. Stiles realizes his hands have clenched into fists, tries to smooth the lines of tension in his body and fails miserably.

“Hey… what’s up?” He sounds concerned, and that galls Stiles further.

Not that Stiles cares, and fuck them very much if they think he does. Just because Scott hasn’t bothered to so much as  _mention_  anything to him, and because Derek’s apparently A-ok with relationships again and into guys and  _Scott’s_  into guys and hasn’t ever bothered to mention it despite Stiles’ own multitude of “so guys might be hot” and “do you think I’m hot to guys?” freakouts…

But he doesn’t care. And if they’re not going to make a big deal about it, why the hell should he? He shouldn’t. That would be seriously not cool of him, and he’s totally cool. He’s the coolest of cool. He’s an iceberg.

The silence is stretching, Stiles realizes, when Derek looks up from the plans too and leans his head to rest against the crook of Scott’s neck. They stare up at him with matching frowns, and something inside Stiles snaps.

“You know what? This is… whatever. Whatever, ok? I just hope Kira’s on board with it.”

It’s a rush of relief to understand why he’s so angry, that he’s indignant on Kira’s behalf, and he feels just a little bit lighter with the knowledge. And then he’s turning and stalking out of the loft as quick as he’d come, clutching the strap of his backpack more tightly as Scott murmurs, plainly baffled, “Kira has to be on board with your dungeon?”

The weight of the door means that he has to turn around to tug it shut behind him. For just a second Stiles catches sight of Derek watching him, all arched brows and parted lips, one hand lifted to grip Scott’s forearm loosely. He looks like he wants to say something, is trying to put together the words, and Stiles closes the door.

Whatever it is, he really doesn’t need to hear it.

.-

Until, it turns out, maybe he does.

.-

His phone starts buzzing about three minutes after he leaves the loft.

He answers without looking, not  _having_  to look to know it’s Scott calling, and waits silently while his friend fumbles for words. Finally:

“I think maybe we’ve got to talk about some things.”

Stiles snorts.

“No dude, I really think we’re good.”

“Derek says—”

“It’s great that you and Derek are  _talking_  so much, ok? Totally  _fantastic_.” And he’s silently pleased that the sarcasm only hits about a six coming out when it feels like an eleven inside of him. “But you should’ve told me, dude.”

He ends the call, and doesn’t answer when it starts ringing again.

 .-

He wasn’t naïve enough to think a stubbornly silenced phone would keep them away for long. He’d hoped maybe they’d be wrapped up enough in each other ( _god_ ) to give him a few hours’ reprieve, though.

They’re both waiting in his room when he walks in, a careful foot and a half of space between them. Derek’s perched against Stiles’ sill in a way that’s so goddamn  _familiar_ from research sessions that Stiles aches from it, while Scott hovers, bouncing and shifting nervously, by the edge of Stiles’ bed.

Stiles feels like walking out the second he sees them, but Scott throws up a hand with an imploring look… and Stiles knows it’s a dick move to be reacting this way. He’s a good friend, and if Derek makes Scott happy,  _fuck…_  if Scott makes  _Derek_  happy… god knows they both deserve it. What kind of a jerk would Stiles be to throw some kind of a fit and ruin this for them?

So he pauses, braces himself to hear some kind of dopey explanation about how they  _discovered_ each other and are blissfully happy – they so clearly are – and readies himself to put on the biggest fake smile he can muster. The  _wrongness_  is still clawing up inside of him, and maybe they’ll be able to hear him lying through his teeth when he says how happy he is for them both, but at least they won’t be able to fault him for not trying. He’s a good friend. The  _best_. He can get past the weirdness.

“ _Dude_ ,” Scott starts in, face screwing up with a mix of emotions Stiles doesn’t have time to interpret, before continuing: “I’m not  _dating Derek_.”

Disgust, Stiles recognizes, a beat late. A good-natured, elementary-school level grossed-out expression, the kind Scott always used to wear when they found slugs in the backyard or when he sees Stiles adding a delicious turkey layer to his peanut butter & jelly sandwiches. He knows that expression, trusts it.

But he still finds his gaze going to Derek for confirmation. Derek just rolls his eyes, eyes that are screaming “you idiot” in a way Stiles has long decided to take as a sign of affection.

“You’re not.” He’s not really sure why he’s repeating it. He’s not really sure what else to say. Scott sighs in a long-suffering way that ends with a frustrated whine.

“Stiles, I’m dating  _Kira_. And sure, Derek’s, like, good looking. In a way that guys who like other guys that way would totally want to jump on, I guess, but that’s not really my area, so…”

The world feels, suddenly, more like the one Stiles woke up in this morning. Scott’s leaning and patting and general touching could just be a normal Scott-thing. Scott’s always been good with a hug or a shoulder-clap. He just didn’t use to do it with Derek.

…But there’s still definitely  _something_  going on, what with Derek being all Mr. Accepting Touches Like It’s Nothing all of a sudden, and Stiles’ eyes wobble back to Derek, wondering if he’s just outed him. Maybe Scott’s not into Derek, but what if Derek…

“He’s not my type,” Derek says, not at all nervously, not like he’s working to hide a secret crush. “The guys I go for aren’t so…” He trails off, considering, and Stiles’ brain is already starting to reel over the revelation in the first part of that sentence before he finishes, decidedly, with “ _earnest_.”

Scott turns to grin at him.

“Oh, dude. That’s probably the nicest rejection I’ve ever gotten.”

“I’m not rejecting you, you’re not interested in me.”

“Wait, so what…” Stiles hears his own voice cut in, too high, and Derek and Scott stop smirking at each other to look at him, still confusingly in sync. “If you’re not dating, what’s with all the…” He lifts his hands, clenching and wiggling fingers through the open air. Derek rolls his eyes, arms crossing, and Scott shoots him a half-questioning look until he twitches his shoulders. Scott presses his lips together, nods, then turns back to Stiles, echoing Derek’s shrug.

“Derek and I… we’re all each other have.” And, even as Stiles begins to puff up with shock and hurt – ok, he was willing to admit that had stung, maybe more than anything else today – Derek cuts in dryly:

“Last wolves standing.”

Stiles stares between them. So Derek and Scott had been getting closer lately because they felt lonely?

“But…” that doesn’t add up. “You have a pack. Lydia, Kira, Malia… we’re your pack.” Derek isn’t even  _part_  of that pack, not officially. He hadn’t kissed Scott’s ring and accepted him as his alpha, even if he does hang around so much he might as well have. Scott shrugs again, awkwardly.

“Yeah, you are, but it’s not…”

“You don’t have the same instincts, Stiles,” Derek says, and it’s not supposed to cut, he can tell, but it still does. “Wolves are pack animals. And especially after…” He cuts off, looking away, the way he always does when conversations slip too close to  _Kate_  or  _the fire_  or any of the other particularly miserable points in Derek’s past.

Scott nods, shifting closer to Derek like it’s an unconscious thing. It probably is.

“I didn’t really get it until Isaac moved in. I was feeling lonely after I broke up with…” He stops before he says Allison’s name. He always does that, and now Stiles notices the way Derek shifts a little, leaning his shoulder subtly against Scott’s. “And Isaac would just come over and hug me or lie in bed next to me and it would feel better, having pack there to support me.”

“Wolves don’t handle being alone well.” Derek’s contribution is a little ambiguous, maybe intentionally so. Stiles thinks about Derek’s fervent attempts to ally himself with the newly bitten Scott, his decision to recruit a pack of misfit teenagers when he first became an alpha. Instead of going for strength or cleverness or some other beneficial trait, he’d looked for the lonely ones. The ones that might want a family.

He thinks about Peter going completely insane alone in the hospital; being calmer now, more controlled, with Derek’s presence in Beacon Hills steadying him.

“And now with Isaac gone…” Scott glances down, leans more heavily into Derek’s side, and Derek lets him.

“Packs can be made up of all kinds of species,” Derek continues, some of the tension easing out of his shoulders. “But…”

“But another wolf’s the only one who really gets it. Who can sense when they’re needed, whose instincts match up.” Stiles feels better saying it, like it’s helping him grasp it to work through it out loud. Scott seems happy to see Stiles understanding, the last of the tension easing out of him as he relaxes his own shoulder against Derek’s.

Stles’ eyes flit to Derek, find gold-green eyes still watching him warily.

“Is… is that ok?”

There’s a gruffness in Derek’s tone, tension in the set of his shoulders, and Scott looks to Derek with wide eyes and the slightest twitch of his lips, like he’s sensing something Stiles can’t. Wolf instincts.

Derek doesn’t look away from Stiles, and Stiles feels weighty, somehow important, under that gaze.

He swallows thickly.

“Yeah, man.” He can’t look away either. Derek’s holding his attention like his answer means everything, like he won’t be happy until he knows that Stiles understands. “You and Scott being like brothers… that’s pretty awesome. That’s actually really, really…”

Derek looks down, the tips of his ears flushing, shoulders finally relaxing.

Scott glances back from Derek to Stiles, eyes dancing. And Stiles knows Scott well enough to  _know_  what those eyes are saying, knows what Derek’s attention and shyly dropped eyes and blushing ears seem to be saying… And  _Derek likes guys_  and Stiles is getting it now, getting why that mattered so much, getting why the sight of Derek accepting Scott’s touch had hit him so violently, like a rejection.

And if Scott and Derek are like brothers… god, how many movies end up with the hero dating the best friend’s brother? The best friend’s hot, brooding, leather jacket wearing, surprisingly smart, bitingly sarcastic and totally, frustratingly captivating older brother?

Stiles being the hero in this scenario. He knows, it needs work.

His skin’s tingling suddenly, anticipation and self-doubt, but Scott’s giving him the tiniest of nods and shifting slowly out of Derek’s personal space and whole worlds are opening up in front of Stiles, the flush in Derek’s ears spreading slowly down his neck as he looks up to meet Stiles’ gaze again.

“So anyway,” Scott’s voice comes out too loud, intrusive and strangely distant at the same time. Derek’s eyes are flicking all over Stiles, down his form and back up to his eyes, and Stiles feels a sound rising up in him, words and not words and  _emotions_  and Derek’s lips are twitching, just barely, but Stiles sees it like it’s his whole world because his eyes are locked on Derek’s mouth and can’t pull them away. “I think I’ve had enough bro time for today. Think I’ll go see what Kira’s up to. I’ll, uh, I’ll talk to you both later, ok? I mean, if you’re free later. Which, who knows, you might not be. So just… don’t answer if you’re not, because I don’t want to hear any… I’ll just. Anyway. Bye.”

Derek’s head bobs, just barely, and Stiles echoes the motion. And then they’re alone, and Derek’s falling away from the window with an indignant huff.

“You thought I was interested in  _him?_ ”

Stiles feels like he should be affronted, maybe, on his best friend’s behalf.

“Hey, Scott’s a catch, you know. He’s really good looking, and brave, and—” And he realizes he really shouldn’t be listing off Scott’s awesome qualities, because it’s not too late for Derek to change his mind and fuck his life, that’s probably be exactly what will happen if he plays this wrong. “And  _earnest_.” He adds pointedly, and Derek’s lips twitch. He’s right in front of Stiles, and Stiles isn’t sure how he’s made the jump so fast from denial to  _get your hands on me now_  but he has, and it’s awesome, or it would be if Derek would stop staring at him like he’s appraising a new purchase or something and just  _kiss_  him.

“I’m really not earnest,” he puts in, helpfully. In case Derek hadn’t noticed. In case that’s not exactly what Derek had been implying. “I’m not even sure I know how to be. It might not even be in my vocabulary. I mean, what does that word even mean anyway, it’s like a foreign language or—”

Derek’s hands are on his hips now, shocking, sudden, and strangely comfortable, like they were meant to rest there. Stiles’ own hands have found their way to Derek’s forearms, shifting and twitching across the hot skin, oversensitized and still wanting more. His mouth is dry, the need to lick his lips overwhelming, but that feels lewd and obvious, and he finds himself laughing shakily instead.

“So this physical comfort thing, it doesn’t have to _just_ be between wolves, right?”

Derek does lick his lips, the jerk, and it  _is_  lewd and distracting and Stiles can’t look away as they start to curve in a slow, wet, teasing smile.

“There are always exceptions.”

Which Stiles takes as a  _yes, please_  and kisses him.

It turns out human instincts work pretty well too.

**Author's Note:**

> [Come find me on Tumblr](http://halekingsourwolf.tumblr.com)


End file.
